Lanvin’s goat fur bag and the weird things that sell out immediately at Net-a-Porter

I stalk Net-a-Porter’s new arrivals page like a crazy person. Everyone at PurseBlog does – every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning, NAP unleashes upon us a lovely assortment of the best luxury goods you can find on the Internet, ranging from basics like cashmere sweaters to not-so-basics like the Lanvin Colorblock Goat Hair Doctor’s Bag, above. And the less basic something is, the more quickly it seems to disappear off of NAP’s metaphorical shelves; by the time I woke up yesterday morning, the quad-colored goat tote above had already been bought up.

If you watch Net-a-Porter closely, you probably won’t be surprised. Last week, several different versions of Meadham Kirchhoff’s crazy faux fur monster-face coats sold out almost as quickly for nearly $7,000 apiece. The more ridiculous and expensive a piece is, the more likely it is to become unavailable at Net-a-Porter before most of the US even wakes up. Why is that?

I have a few theories. First, items that have a small audience – heavily “directional” pieces with an even heavier price tag – are likely bought in very small quantities by retailers who are trying to minimize their own financial risk, which means that a particular piece might only need a couple of interested buyers to deplete the stock. Second, the louder the piece, the more memorable it is – potential customers are going to first scoop up things that they’ve been thinking about for six months after seeing a piece on the runway or in a magazine, and after that, it’s on to the basics. When combined with the limited availabilities of the most fashion-forward looks, a lot of things fly out the window very quickly.

That doesn’t entirely explain the Meadham Kirchhoff jackets (seriously, they weren’t even real fur!), but it might shed some light on why this Lanvin bag is no longer with us. I saw it featured several places over the last few months, including front and center on Vogue.com, so I’m sure more than a few people with money to blow were champing at the bit to get their hands on it. It wasavailable at Net-a-Porter for $5900, and if you must have one, you can add yourself to the waiting list at the product page.